Stephen Colbert reveals he auditioned to play Screech on Saved by the Bell

“Oh! I auditioned for Saved by the Bell,” Colbert revealed in ALate Show interview with Ryan Reynolds. “That was my first professional audition. 1986? They came to Chicago, I was a student at Northwestern University. And I don’t know, somebody had seen me do something, somebody had scouted me at the school.” Colbert is 13 years older than Dustin Diamond, who famously played Screech.